ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1690917
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health Welfare, Volume IIView all 21 articles
Socioeconomic Determinants of Mental Health: The Role of Unemployment, Urbanization, and Institutions Across Income Levels
Provisionally accepted
- 1Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, China
- 2Daejin University, Pocheon-si, Republic of Korea
- 3Weifang University of Science and Technology, Shouguang, China
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This study investigates the complex nexus between various socioeconomic factors and mental health across income levels. The research utilizes fixed-effect and System GMM estimation methods with data from 1996 to 2020 to extend the analysis beyond unemployment rates. Research findings prove that joblessness elevates mental health risks for all types of disorders from a general perspective through anxiety disorders and depressive disorders in countries at various economic levels. Moreover, urbanization and out-of-school children are noted as having negative impacts on mental health. The findings confirm that unemployment harms mental health; however, institutions in only high-income countries function well and can reduce these effects. This research emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach to promoting mental well-being. A society that supports mental health across all borders can be created by addressing unemployment and factors such as urbanization, education access and institutional quality.
Keywords: Unemployment, Mental Health, Globalization, Theory of Planned Behavior, GMM
Received: 26 Aug 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zhao and Tingting. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuqi Zhao, 19558562132@163.com
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